5 Comments Written by Sams on March 5, 2010 – 2:02 pm

Keeping and maintaining killifish are all about self experiences. Some species are quite easy to maintain yet others need some extra work and care. There are many great webpage discussing about methods and other related issue. You guys just have to try and see if it works well…then just stick to your own methods.

In this section, I am going to share with readers on how I maintain my killifish as well as breeding them. I try to keep it simple and less complicatedJ. I still believe that regular water changes and fresh live food are the key to success to keep most killifish until they reach adult. I feed all my killifish mainly with live white mosquito larvae, tubifex, brineshrimp and in Summer time, me and Uwe will have fun collecting black mosquito larvae and sometimes Daphinia. Since, all these food containing lots of protein, feeding them regularly will make the water slightly cloudy and increase bacteria. This is when regular water changes are needed !….If you guys cannot co-op with this, don’t keep killifishJ……get other pets instead.

Fun time in the fishroom, my brain works well here

Tubifex.	White mosquito larvae.
Green water. – for tiny fry	Brine shrimp. – just hatched

Vinegar eels- providing this food for fry together with newly hatched brine shrimp.

I breed my killifish in small tanks such as 4 liter, 6 liter and 12 liter and 20 liter and for Lamp-eyes, I have no choice to keep them in a big group in larger tank as they prefer a space with plenty of current of very-well oxygenated water. Water parameter?….I am using tap water with pH around 7.6 and gH about 7.0. So far, it works with all killifish I have in my fish room.

3 liter, 4 liter, 6 liter and 12 liter tanks.

Most of the breeding tanks don’t have filter but as I mentioned before, regular water changes is essential to keep the breeders fit and healthy. Basically, small tank – some peat – and healthy breeders…..will give you an outstanding resultJ. Okay, it depends on your luck too…..

Peat fibres.	Another type of peat, a mixture of fibres and clumps
Peat moss from the garden center – no fertilizer (!).	Mops
Filter casing – for crevice spawner like Procatopus.	Java Moss – I use this plant for Ps. Annulatus.
Salvinia Najan – Floating plants and good for natural set up tanks.	Breeding colony of Gnatolebias zonatus

There are many discussion when it comes to store peat. To me, the wetness of the peat plays important role as well as the temperature. Normally, I will let the peat dry for a few hours on newspapers until about 20-25% moist left. Then, store them in sandwich bags. My fishroom in the basement have temperature up to 25 Celcius on the top of the shelf whereas on the lower part temperature can be as low as 17 Celcius. Check the peat regularly to see if any fast developing eggs which are ready to be wet. Experience killi keepers normally know when to wet the peat (all about experiences)…so, if you dont have time to check the peat in regular basis, just pour water and just wait. I do that to myself. If nothing happen, dry the peat again and store for another 4-5 weeks…and repeat. This method works well with Semi-Annuals and Annuals killifish. For the Non-annuals killifish, eggs normally ready to be wet when they are 10-14 days.

When the time to wet the peat, I prefer to use small plastic cups or candy box (always ask my neighbours who have kids  if they have any empty candy boxJ)…Sometimes, ice-cream cub also works well – just recycled to save our planetJ!….and it is easy to maintain the fry until they reach certain size. Again!…..watch out the water quality. When the fry are reaching about 0.5 cm, they should be ready to swim to a bigger raising tank and this is when you will have fun to see them growing and start eating larger food.

Plastic ware and ice-cream cup for hatching. So, start eating ice-cream now!	The raising tanks with slow aeration. Pic shows tanks of Fp. rubrolabialis “Malende” and Fp. robertsoni juveniles.

The last stage is the growing tanks. I will release the young fish in bigger tanks and with filters as you can see in the photo. This is where I let the juveniles grow until adult. It is fun and feel somekind of relief to see your fish growing healthily and swimming until they are becoming adult. No words can describe the satisfaction!

The growing tank – Pic shows a large group of Fp. deltaensis. Colour up nicely.	The growing tank – Pic shows a large group of Terranatos dolichopterus ‘Isla Raton’ sexing out nicely.
The growing tank – Pic shows a large group of Fp. kamdeni ‘Korup National Park’ and some adult of Chromaphyosemion ecucuense.	(from left) The breeding tank of Terranatos dolichopterus, Maratecoara Lacortei and Simpsonichthys ghisolfii